I have been out of the hobby for over a decade until this year. I have been very active since January and have been focusing on Basketball, primarily 80's Fleer and Star cards. I have recently completed the run of fleer sets and grabbed some awesome graded Jordan Stars and this will always be my main focus.

These posts regarding the Fleer Retro have really caught my eye though. I was out of the hobby after the 96-97 season but do remember some of these inserts they have retro'd and like the look of the product. I went by a local card shop here in NYC and saw a box of this product for $535. To me it seems like a VERY steep buy in for a new issue. I know there are some big money inserts/autos but what are the odds of pulling a nice MJ? I have no interest in modern players, just guys from when i was a kid in the 80s.Is this product mostly the new guys? An even mix of past/present? Worth the risk? Something tells me I'm better off hunting down more 80's fleer unopened or 90's unopened looking for the inserts i remember than this.

One last question then is what post 93-pre 98 boxes yield the best MJ inserts?

(09-19-2012 09:49 AM)user_3n5kp Wrote: I have been out of the hobby for over a decade until this year. I have been very active since January and have been focusing on Basketball, primarily 80's Fleer and Star cards. I have recently completed the run of fleer sets and grabbed some awesome graded Jordan Stars and this will always be my main focus.

These posts regarding the Fleer Retro have really caught my eye though. I was out of the hobby after the 96-97 season but do remember some of these inserts they have retro'd and like the look of the product. I went by a local card shop here in NYC and saw a box of this product for $535. To me it seems like a VERY steep buy in for a new issue. I know there are some big money inserts/autos but what are the odds of pulling a nice MJ? I have no interest in modern players, just guys from when i was a kid in the 80s.Is this product mostly the new guys? An even mix of past/present? Worth the risk? Something tells me I'm better off hunting down more 80's fleer unopened or 90's unopened looking for the inserts i remember than this.

One last question then is what post 93-pre 98 boxes yield the best MJ inserts?

Sorry for the long post and thanks to anyone that can answer.

There are a ton of good MJ inserts from 98-99 Upper Deck products since that's the year he retired. Lots of potential from later skybox products as well (z-force has the raves and a couple nice inserts, skybox has the ruby parallels and nice inserts as well). Flair Showcase has nice stuff, and obviously with Finest you can hit refractors, particularly the 97-98 Finest with embossed inserts and numbered refractors.

Personally? I'm on a tight budget, so 97-98 Topps Chrome (retail can be had for $60 a box, same odds as hobby boxes) and 97-98 Bowman's Best (used to go around $55, now closer to $75) are my favs. I've hit 3 Jordan refractors total out of 6 boxes of these products (4 Bowman's Best, 2 Chrome). One box of Bowman's Best had a Jordan refractor, Ewing Atomic Refractor, Pippen insert refractor, Kobe insert, and two Iverson refractors!

I collect Michael Jordan, Mitch Richmond, and Ohio State players (football and basketball) in OSU gear. I strongly prefer 90's-era cards and use newer cards primarily for trade bait!

Whats the deal with this 97-98 skybox metal championship preview box?? Seeing it around $250...any good?

The first year of z-force, 96-97 can net you kobe RC stuff and there are a couple decent MJs. The Metal championship runs super high b/c everybody wants to hit a precious metal gem...even the commons sell for $50+. Odds aren't good though. but 96-97 Skybox Premium hobby boxes guarantee one ruby per box and you're likely to hit one autographics as well. That was the first year for those and they're pretty desirable.

I collect Michael Jordan, Mitch Richmond, and Ohio State players (football and basketball) in OSU gear. I strongly prefer 90's-era cards and use newer cards primarily for trade bait!

In regards to your questions about the retro, There is a decent mix of older and newer players, and the cards look pretty nice, but if you look at my post from a few days ago you will see my box that I spent almost $500 on and I was pretty disappointed. I've seen quite a few of the Jordan and Lebron auto/inserts pulled and they are bringing absurd prices, but if your on a budget it is not a good gamble. I would have been much happier buying a couple boxes of preferred. The Preferred Basketball has an amazing checklist of older and newer players and all of the cards are autographed except for the Game Worn JSY booklets which are pretty nice.

Thanks for the input. I have had the ripping bug lately and popped a few 88-89 fleer boxes and a handful of 87-88 packs along with some late 70's topps and 80-81 topps wax packs. 86-87 Fleer is out of the question at 375/pack especially since I have a set with all stars in BGS 8.5-9.

I'm looking to bust a few things and love the 90's jordans but don't know too much about unopened product past 92-93. The retro looked interesting but after seeing some of the comments here and on the PSA boards I think I'll pass.

At $500+ per its better to just buy a graded Star MJ 2nd year or some nice graded inserts outright. Hell, you could even get a nice mid grade Oscar or West 61 Fleer...

Would love some more recommendations for a fun rip with MJ possibilities in the $100-200/box range.At that buy in the gamble is still fun and the risk is low.

I always liked Finest early years... Not many inserts, but the base cards are cool. I just finished putting my 2nd year Finest set in pennysleeves & toploaders.. don't want the cards sticking together like they are known to do..

I've been looking at early Ultra & the early 90's fleer boxes.. searching for boxes that have the MJ inserts in them... but some are hard to come by, especially the cello/jumbo boxes...

I recommend searching ebay for the different year products.. looking at the MJ's & other Stars you loved to watch playing... find a box that has inserts that appeal to you & pick up a box.. that way it fulfills your addiction to busting wax.. then search for the insert singles online for the collecting chase... this is what I have been doing with the years I didn't collect..
I am on a tight budget at the moment, but always searching for cards that I can pick up for a steal.

I also Loved the Emotion (I think) 1994-95. forgot what year they came out.. they remind me of the first thick sports cards I've seen...

I used to love the the emotion when they came out in like 1994. They had the Jordan in the 45 JSY. and the inserts looked really nice. I think they were the start of the "E" sets because the next year they came out with the 1995-96 E-XL and then the E-X2000 the next year. All of them were skybox/hoops brands.
Scratch the hoops, just Skybox.